The keys were later traded in for a biro pen after Greigy lost the key to Room 210 of a Perth hotel deep in the WACA wicket. To this day, the room key remains buried.

The first Test at the Gabba have been tough for the Channel 9 team, as their old mate battles lung cancer.

Of course, they are all deeply supportive of someone who from the moment he was diagnosed planned to tackle the disease head-on.

Text messages have been traded with the team and Greig's wife Vivian almost every day.

"I've had a few scrapes in my life and this is another one," the South African-born Greig told The Sunday Telegraph last month.

Greig began commentating for Nine as soon as the World Series Cricket split was resolved in 1978.

"Right from that moment on I worked for the Nine Network and I have ever since," Greig said in a recent interview. "Looking back, it was a good deal, wasn't it."

The Nine commentators are as much a part of the game as Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting and Dave Warner.

"You walk down the street with them and people want to touch them," Nine's head of sport Steve Crawley said.

Greigy, Chappelli and Richie have been around so long they are like an extension of our family.

And just like any family, they've had their struggles - this weekend, and the start of the Test summer, was one of them.

They've had a few blues, too. But every summer Richie Benaud and the boys turn up at our place - and it's been that way for 33 years. Despite a few rostered days off during the recent Twenty20 cricket, Ian Chappell can recall only one other time that Greig wasn't in the commentary box for a Test match.

"It must have been in the mid to late-80s because I did the pitch report with the Weather Wall and I remember it didn't go too well," Chappell said.

"Afterwards, David Hill (Channel 9's former head of sport) told me not to worry because that would be the first and only time that I would have to do the pitch report - and he was right."

Asked how he felt about Greig being absent from the Gabba, Chappell paused.

"It's like when we were playing and a player was dropped or injured, it's a shock to all of a sudden not have them there," Chappell said.

"It's hard, but you just try and do the best you can to get on with the job."

Nine aren't placing any pressure on Greig to return.

"He can come back to the box when he's ready and willing," Crawley says.

When he does return, let's hope he doesn't forget where he's left the keys.